Improvement in gawie-boards



UITE

TYLER It. IVASGATT, J R., OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOB OF TIVO- TH'IRDS HIS RIGHT TO NATHANIEL A. SEARS AND LABAN HEATH, OF

SAME PLAGE.

IMPROVEMENT IN GAME-BOARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 352,626, dated June 1G, 1874; application tiled May 2, 1874.

To all whom fit may concern Be it known that I, TYLER It. IVAsG-A'r'l, Jr., of Boston, in the county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Game Apparatus, of which the following is a description sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which my invention appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this speciiication, in which- Figure l is an isometrical perspective view of my improved game apparatus, and Fig. 2, a view of the eue and balls.

My invention relates to that class of games more especially designed for parlor use; and consists in a board or table of novel construction and arrangement, to be used with a cue and balls, as hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed, by which an instructive and very amusing entertainment is produced.

In the drawing, A is the body of the board or table; B B B, the perches; a the stake; d, the cushion; and l0, l5, and 25 the pockets. The central portion of the bottom of the board is laid ott' into a series of alternate white and dark stripes or bars, extending laterally entirely across the same, and numbered at each end respectively from one to six, the numerals on the dark bars ruiming in a direction opposite those on the white. One end of the board O is plain, being known as neutral ground,77 and is provided with the pocket 15, and three wire perches, B B B, arranged as shown. The other end of the board is laid off into a series of light and dark triangular spaces or points, numbered respectively from 011e to twelve, in opposite directions, the bases of all the white points resting on the white bar 6, and of all the dark points against the end rim of the table. In the white point numbered G there is a pocket, 25, and near the apex of the point there is a short rubber stake, a, which is fitted'firmly into a proper aperture in the table. The cue The balls J are alike in size, weight, and

material, but in color one is dark and the other three light, the dark one being called the driverj or driving-ball. The cushion d is of rubber, after the style of an ordinary billiardtable, and the perehes B have rings or rests at the top for holding the balls J, which may be of ivory, marble, or any suitable material, and correspond in size with the size ofthe table.

Having thus described my improved game apparatus, which I denominate a Fiorentina Board,77 I will now proceed to explain the game for which it is preferably a-daptcd, and which I designate Florentina.77

The following are the rules of the game:

l. Place the three similar balls, one on the ring of each perch or upright wire at the head of the board. Place the other ball on the spot or middle ofthe dark stripe, numbered l, and with the cue strike it a smart blow, forcing it in the direction ot' one ofthe wires,with the intention of dislod ging the ball on its top.

2. If successful iu dislodging a ball, let the l ball so dislodged roll where it will and stop. It' it stops on any of the white or colored sections of the board, except the neutral ground or large white space in which the wires are fixed, it loses or adds to the player according to the number ofthe piece on which it stops. Ifit stops on the dark stripe it gains, it' on the light it loses.

3. The player has .the privilege of rollin g his driving-ball from where it lodged. after rolling (as long as he gains) intoany pocket or portionof the board, provided he shall first hit the stake or the dislodged ball, and wherever the ball lodges it shall gain or lose for him, as above, or he may ricochet the driving-ball upon the ball which he dislodged, and shall have the combined benefit of the change ot' positions of both balls. If the perch or standard ball is thus forced into a pocket the player shall have the benefit of the number of that pocket, and may play again with the drivingball from where it has rolled, unless that has gone into a pocket, when he may set it at its starting-point, and play as before 5 but if the standard ball also lodge in a pocket he cannot place that on the ring again during that turn. If neither ball Went into a pocket, unless he can hit the stake or the dislodged ball7 or dislodge another ball at one trial, he loses his power to play till after his opponent, and the position assumed by the driving-ball, as the result of that trial, does not count. His opponent places all the balls, and begins as at first.

4. A ball is considered lodged on that piece which is covered by the largest portion ofthe ball.

5. If the ball dislodgedby a player rolls into any pocket on the table, it shall count so much for or against the player, as is indicated by the figures at that pocket.

6. If the driving-ball after dislodgin g a standard ball, rolls into the pocket at the circular or perch end of the board, or into any pocket or other numbered portion of the board, then the player shall derive the beneit of such roll, provided such roll is unaided.

7. The driving-ball can be rolled into the pocket at the end of the board, except when it lies on the large white section.

S. A colored ball can be ricocheted into the pocket at the end of the board from any point of the board on which it may lodge after displacement from the ring.

9. When a ball stops so equally on two scctions that it cannot be determined on which it belongs it counts nothing, and the playeris governed by the general rules whether he for- 'eits his right to play again.

10. Each player as he takes his turn .1rranges the board as at first.

11. The pockets in the white strip No. 5 each lose 10.

12. If the drivin g-ball rolls Oil' the table the player loses his turn.

13. It' the ball is knocked ofi of one of the Wires outside the table, it must be put back on the Wire.

14. As soon as a standard or perch ball has been rolled into a pocket it is death and Withheld from the board during the turn of that player.

l5. Should a player start from the spot a second or third time in the same turn, and hit neither the stake nor dislodged ball, or dislodge a ball, he has nothing` to lose or gain by that roll, and gives up his turn.

16. The player cannot roll toward the rear of the board from the spot on any consideration, and a ball is considered on the spot when placed there, not when it rolls there unaided.

17. When one ofv the rolling balls enters a pocket, and is closely followed by another, and it is evident that the latter would have rolled into the pocket but for the presence there oi' the irst, the player has a count for both balls as if both had gone into pockets.

It will be obvious that a mallet may be used instead oi' a eue, and that a variety of other games may be played on the table described; also that the bed of the table may be curved at the end C, or covered with cloth, on which the bars, points, and numbers may be stamped, or in the fabric of which the same may be Woven, without departing from the spirit ot my invention.

Having thus explained my improvement, what I claim is- The game apparatus described, consisting of the table A, cue H, and balls J, constructed and arranged substantially as and for the purpose specified.

TYLER R. WASGATT, JR.

W'itnesses H. E. ME'rcALr, (l. A. SHAW. 

